Court rejects Caisse bid to be excluded from suit
Quebec’s highest court has rejected a bid by the Caisse de depot et placement to be excluded from a lawsuit related to the Norbourg scandal.
The Quebec Court of Appeal’s decision on June 28 overturns a Superior Court ruling last summer.
In August 2008, a former police director who lost $300,000 in the Norbourg investment scandal requested permission to file a class-action lawsuit against the Caisse, Quebec’s massive pension-fund manager.
Real Ouimet alleges the Caisse did not conduct proper financial checks when it sold one particular fund to the Norbourg investment firm in 2003.
In their ruling, three appeals court justices said the only way for the Caisse to be targeted was for it to face separate legal proceedings, which was the basis of Ouimet’s court proceedings.
The Caisse’s Maxime Chagnon suggested the financial giant will not appeal the ruling.
The Norbourg financial scandal, masterminded by Quebec money manager Vincent Lacroix, has been described by the courts as the biggest financial fraud in Canadian history.
Lacroix was sentenced last October to 13 years in jail after quickly pleading guilty to 200 fraud-related charges in a $130-million scam that involved 9,200 clients.
